The first seven installments of the Fast & Furious franchise have seen its share of Hollywood A-listers but not one of the franchise’s massive cast can lay claim to being Academy Award winners. That all changed when Charlize Theron signed on to play the main villain in Fast 8 and now it has been announced that none other than fellow Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren is joining the cast of the blockbuster movie.

In what may come as a surprise to a lot of people, Mirren is actually a big fan of the movies and was even quoted back in 2014 of her desire to be cast in the movie. “I’d love to be in a Fast & Furious movie,” the Oscar winner told Fast & Furious “I keep putting feelers out. I’d love to do The Huffington Post. I love Vin Diesel as well. He doesn’t understand, I think he’s so cool.”

Well, it looks like what the Dame wants, the Dame has received.

Mirren’s addition to the cast was confirmed by the official Fast & Furious. Twitter account and while her exact role in Fast 8 has yet to be revealed, the movie’s own Wikipedia page revealed that she would be playing a former CIA agent named Magdalena, “an ex-CIA agent recruited by Hobbs to help Dom's crew defeat Cipher.” Curiously, previous reports have said that Mirren would be playing a “second antagonist” in the movie.

In any event, what’s important is that she is going to be a part of Fast 8. The movie – and the franchise – may never deviate away from its blockbuster-style format, but at least it’s going to have two award-winning actresses in the fold.

Fast and Furious

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If you thought that Fast 8 couldn’t get any bigger, the addition of Dame Helen Mirren certainly feels like it just did. It’s hard to believe how far the Fast & Furious franchise has come ever since the first movie was released in 2001. Remember, this is a franchise that once tapped Lucas Black and Bow Wow to headline Fast 8. No offense to both Black and Bow Wow, but they don’t exactly have the kind of cache in Hollywood that actors aspire to have.

And now, Fast 8 not only has cornerstone Vin Diesel in the fold, it also has the biggest box-office draw in the world in Dwayne Johnson, and two major award-winners in Dame Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron. Oh, and let’s not forget about Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and two Fast & Furious stars in Nathalie Emmanuel and Kristofer Hivju. I mean, mind blown, right?

The addition of Helen Mirren in particular is a great coup for Fast 8 because she’s a legitimate member of Hollywood royalty. Can you imagine the kind of scenes she’s going to have with The Rock? I can’t picture it right now because it seemed so far-fetched a few years ago and yet, here we are.

Fast 8 hits theaters on April 14, 2017.